


Dreams of the Future

by Stormwind13



Series: Core of Strength [3]
Category: Naruto
Genre: AU, Characters will be added as they appear - Freeform, Multi, Original Characters - Freeform, historical one shots, so many original characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-27
Updated: 2016-09-02
Packaged: 2018-07-18 11:57:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 7,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7314289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Stormwind13/pseuds/Stormwind13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One shots of Konoha's history, from before its founding through the time skip, placed in the Core of Strength Universe. Not necessary to read the main story in order to understand what's going on.</p><p>The chapter summery will include the year the story takes place (with the founding of the village being year one), the event taking place, and the person whose point of view the story is from.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Senju Tobirama I

**Author's Note:**

> These one shots are placed in the Core of Strength Universe and most of them take place prior to the start of the main story - A Lot of Fight Left in Me. This series is canon divergent, in small ways that will be touched on in these one shots (since Fight is told primarily from Sakura's point of view, these stories would never get told if I didn't place them here). 
> 
> The chapter summery will include the year the story takes place (with the founding of the village being year one), the event taking place, and the person whose point of view the story is from.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 12 Dec 0012 YF  
> Hashirama and Mito welcome twin boys into the family  
> Senju Tobirama

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Making the decision to have a child is momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body. - Elizabeth Stone

The twins had been left alone.

Tobirama strode into the room, glancing around to make sure that he hadn’t missed someone (doubtful, but from the minute that Mito had been rushed back to the Hokage’s residence, the entire village had distracted and on edge. It wasn’t a combination he liked) but there was nothing – only an open door that Tobirama guessed was where the actual birth had taken place.

He tried to ignore Mito’s screaming and Hashirama’s cursing. His mother’s cursing was harder to ignore – she rarely did, informing him that if she was going to curse there was going to be a point and people were going to pay attention – but he moved towards the twins instead.

They’d been placed on a table, with a thin wall of cloth – sheets and towels – around them to prevent them from rolling anywhere, he assumed, but they hadn’t even been cleaned off yet and were still covered in birthing fluid and blood.

A clean cloth was easy enough to locate – where were the servants to handle this? – and he gently wiped down first one twin and then the other. Both were boys, which was to be expected as the Senju had never been known for producing large numbers of girl children. He placed them on a different part of the table (a clean part) before he left to hunt down the swaddling he knew had been stockpiled for this specific instance.

When he returned, the other room was nearly quiet, but the twins were screaming now, driven by either discomfort or hunger (Tobirama wasn’t sure which, but he could offset the first even if couldn’t do anything for the second) and he didn’t waste any time swaddling the infants snugly. The first one – Ryoichi, since he had the green ribbon designating the firstborn wrapped around his wrist – began to quiet almost immediately, but the second, Takeichi, only seemed to get louder.

"Be quiet." Tobirama kept his voice calm, hoping that would help. "You will worry your parents and they have enough to deal with right now." Not that the infant would understand, but he could only assume that not having to listen to their children wail would help Hashirama and Mito focus.

This was the first time, as far as anyone knew, of a female jinchūriki carrying a child – two children – to full term, and Hashirama, Tamiyo, and Mito had spent the last five months pouring over scrolls and histories to see if there was anything that might help them prepare. Uzushio had poured through their own immense libraries and oral histories and had sent what little they thought might be useful.

There had been nothing. Female jinchūriki simply didn’t have children and male jinchūriki had apparently been discouraged from fathering any. Assuming the villages bothered with jinchūriki at all.

Takeichi gave another two wails, these the loudest of them all, as though to remind Tobirama that he was not the boss before subsiding into whimpers. Ryoichi was already half asleep, though it was an uneasy sleep and Tobirama carefully maneuvered so that he could hold them both. There was no point in starting worries of favoritism, even if they wouldn’t remember it.

"Wha-" Hashirama stuck his head into the room, his worried expression relaxing when he saw Tobirama. "You've got them then?" A glance into the room behind him, "Tamiyo would have been in here, but the seal was more degraded than we thought."

"Is it taken care of?" Tobirama allowed his gaze to follow his older brother's but didn't show any more worry than that. If he showed his own worry - he liked Mito, she was good for his brother - Hashirama would stay in an attempt to reassure him and Mito and his mother probably needed Hashirama's skill with seals more than Tobirama needed his brother's reassurances.

"Your mother says she can finish," Hashirama leaned against the doorframe and Tobirama could see his exhaustion - he could only imagine how Mito must feel - the contractions had started yesterday morning and Mito had spent nearly twenty hours on the birthing bed, something he had overheard several of the older women in the village murmuring about. Hashirama’s gaze rested on the twins and a slight smile appeared before it vanished. "She doesn't recommend more children though and I agree - this was too close." He shook his head. “There was nothing about how much energy bearing children would divert from keeping the seal active.”

"What does Mito say?" Tobirama moved towards his brother, awkwardly holding out one of the twins and Hashirama took him carefully, shifting Takeichi until his head was supported.

"We don't know yet - she's still recovering and we haven't brought it up." Hashirama admitted and Tobirama could see that bringing up the possibility of no more children while his wife was recovering from birthing their first ones might not be the best idea. Ryoichi yawned, blue eyes blinking open before they slid closed again.

"He's - they're amazing aren't they?"

Tobirama didn't think he'd ever heard his brother sound so... soft. "They have potential." he admitted, cradling Ryoichi a little closer. “Mito did excellently, as usual.” He eyed Hashirama, “and your contribution was also important, I’m sure.”

“Brat.” His brother didn’t even look up from Takeichi. “She did, didn’t she?”


	2. Saigo Taji I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 17 May YF 77  
> After the massacre  
> Taji Saigo

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Losing people you love affects you. It is buried inside of you and becomes this big, deep hole of ache. It doesn’t magically go away, even when you stop officially mourning. - Carrie Jones
> 
>  
> 
> Taiji Saigo is mentioned in [A Lot of Fight Left in Me](http://archiveofourown.org/works/4372169/chapters/9923495), as Librarian-san and chapter four of [Half the Sky](http://archiveofourown.org/works/5209283/chapters/12008717)

The sun was shining and Taji wanted to curse, to scream damnation to the heavens.

Hadn't she lost enough?

Before her sat six urns, each containing the last remains of six nieces and nephews. All had been bright, cheerful, and civilian and they should not be here in front of her, with the sun heating the air around them, waiting for her to pour them into the crypt with their ancestors.

Her hand trembled where it gripped the cane - at least these six had been unmarried. Three more of their cousins were already mixed with ashes of their spouses' families. She wasn't sure if she had the strength to visit more graves, to leave more offerings for the dead.

"Saigo-san." Sarutobi was quiet, she noted, her gaze not leaving the urns. She’d missed his approach completely.

"Hokage-sama." She managed to keep her voice even, with great effort. He would have just come from the mass funeral held for the Uchiha shinobi, who were felled in their sleep. She hadn’t attended that one – she’d loved a Uchiha once and to see what had been one of the pillars of Konoha brought down… no. She would not watch that.

“I’m –“

She cut him off.  “Don’t.” But he was still her Hokage. “Please.”  She didn’t want to hear his apologies, his condolences. Not from him – with his three children and new grandchild.

She didn’t move as his hand rested on her shoulder and gave it a comforting squeeze. She’d remember this, in the coming weeks and months, but for now… she didn’t want comfort. She wanted her family back.

“The village is giving a stipend to the families of the civilians that Itachi killed.” He said finally, taking out his pipe and lighting it. Taji said nothing – a lit pipe meant that Hiruzen was feeling guilty, though she didn’t know about what. Did he think he should have seen this coming? No one saw this coming, though maybe they should have, with poor Shisui Uchiha’s death.

“We don’t need it.” It was just her and Kotaro now – and they both received stipends for being crippled in the course of their duties and she had her salary from her position at the library.

“What should I do with it then?”

She opened her mouth, ready to tell him to take the money and burn it, for all she cared, then stopped. Hesitated.

“The Kyūbi boy. What happened to him?” She didn’t know what made her ask the question, she hadn’t thought of him in years, since Hiruzen had asked her to take him in. She’d refused. She hadn’t wanted the monster that killed her children under her roof.

A long pause as Hiruzen took long puff of his pipe. “Still at the orphanage, though he spends more nights than not curled up in whatever tree hollows he can find.” His tone was bitter – there had been no one willing to step in that the council would not have overturned. She knew that Mikoto had offered and had been rejected.  As had Minato's genin teammates, who had just taken the boy from the orphanage before they had been forced to return him.

“Use the stipends for him.” Her grip on the cane tightened. “I… I couldn’t, Hiruzen. I still can’t.” She wasn’t speaking to her Hokage any longer. Just one grieving parent to another. “But… but he shouldn’t be sleeping in trees. Not _her_ son.”

“The stipends will be enough for an apartment.” Hiruzen said finally. “Food too, if it is spent wisely.”

“I…” She glanced up at him and looked away. “I’m not that strong.”

Another long silence as Taji stared at six urns. Six lives lost because of a mad man. Hiruzen exhaled slowly, snuffing out the pipe. “Strong enough, I think.” Another gentle squeeze. “You’ve not broken yet.”

“Haven’t I?” Taji wasn’t as sure as he seemed to be. She’d been broken since Danzo had laid that blood stained Hitai-ate in her hands over five decades ago.

Hiruzen sighed and she realized how tired he sounded. “No. Cracked perhaps. But I think you’ll outlast all of us.”


	3. Arata of the Chinwa Clan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 25 June YF 82  
> Reactions to the Invasion of Konoha  
> Arata of the Chinwa Clan, the Daimyo's brother

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wisdom consists of the anticipation of consequences. - Norman Cousins

The Land of Waterfalls is pretty enough, Arata supposes, but he much prefers the trees of his native Fire County; nearly two centuries after the Senju began to settle there, the trees and plants they cultivated still grow wild and seem more vibrant than any other. He knows if he asks his two guards – both shinobi of Konoha – they will tell him that it is because the Senju infused them with chakra, turning them into something…more than an ordinary tree. So he doesn’t ask.

He much prefers the (high romanticized, he will gladly admit to all who ask) idea that the Senju’s love for their adopted homeland was so great that even the flora they planted wished to express it. The Daimyo doesn’t have time for such flights of fancy himself, even if he does indulge his youngest brother to a point. And that point is when he is trying to open trade agreements with Waterfall in order to gain access to their truly magnificent dyes.

So Arata is in Waterfall attempting to convince their Daimyo to open the borders to allow more routine access by trade caravans and reasonable taxes on whatever goods might come in from Fire Country – an intimidating prospect, since Waterfall has had prohibitively high tariffs on all goods entering from Fire Country for over seventy years.

Also, if Arata says so himself, the Waterfall Daimyo is a prick.

“I don’t understand it,” the complaint is more to himself than either of his bodyguards, “why won’t he help his people?” He runs a hand through his brown hair, sending it spiking in every direction (his great-grandmother had been a member of the Senju Clan, which had led to his brown hair, and _her_ mother had been a Uzumaki, which is why his hair, unless he took care to grow it long, tended to stick in all directions. He hated it long), and continues, “Our trade would make this land richer.”

His bodyguards – Tsuki Inuzuka and Shigetaka Aburame – exchange sideways glances and he flaps a hand at them. “I am well aware that the capital will do nothing without their hidden village’s approval and,” his hand came up forestalling whatever Shigetaka is about to say, “I am also aware that Hidden Waterfall has bourn a grudge against the Leaf Village – and by extension, Fire Country – since that rather unfortunate business with the assassin.”

He pauses and narrows his eyes at them. “Seventy years ago.”

Tsuki looks outraged. “They tried to assassinate Shodaime-san!”

 _Kami preserve him from all shinobi_! Arata scowls at her and picks up a scroll on the founding of the Land of Waterfall (hidden within, in cipher, is also the best guess that their spies could give him on trade and tax revenue. Somewhere in there is the leverage that he will need to make this work). “Yes.” He agrees, because that is a matter of somewhat obscure public record, “Not very well, clearly, since the man went on to live for another forty or so years.”

He returns to his reading as Tsuki continues to sputter (it is good to occasionally do or say something to keep his bodyguards on their toes. He likes this pair rather more than the pair that he’d had during that visit to the Land of Tea and he idly wonders if he can just request them permanently. They’re protective without being overbearing, and he can honestly say that Tsuki’s nin-kin partner, Sairento, has completely charmed him) and concentrates on the task ahead of him. If Fire Country can begin to move trade into the smaller countries in the North, they will grow far more prosperous with more allies. And that can only be a good thing for his people.

He looks up when one of his many, many employees enter, looking pale, which is never a good sign. He had hired Tejio Kozu specifically because the man is nearly impossible to ruffle and right at the moment, he looks like someone has delivered a blow. Shigetaka takes a step forward as Sairento moves out into the hall.

“Kozu-san?” He needs to keep his calm – the others, whether they know it or not, will take their cues from him.

Tejio just hands him a missive and Arata takes it, skimming it quickly before he starts again from the beginning, forcing himself to not react. It takes him two more readings to be sure that his reactions will be under control.

“Inuzuka-san, Aburame-san,” He stands and heads towards his personal quarters. “Prepare to head to the Daimyo’s residence. Kozu-san, after we receive the summons that is no doubt coming, begin preparations to leave. I don’t believe that we will be making any more progress with trade negotiations.”

Tsuki had taken the missive herself and now she looks at him and Arata can see the anger and worry he feels reflected in her own eyes. “If you believe that you’ll be in danger, Arata-san, we should leave now.”

“If I believed _we’d_ be in immediate danger, I wouldn’t hesitate to flee.” Arata assures her. “But no. We cannot allow them to think – especially with ambassadors from Lightning and Earth both arriving yesterday! – that we are in any way uneasy.” He is firm on this point. “It was a failure from start to finish. The Daimyo has the utmost faith in his shinobi, who have never failed him, and a cowardice attack by a long term ally is not enough to dissuade that faith.”

“Sir.” Tsuki relaxes a bit and steps back and Arata realizes that she had been worried about his reaction. He blinks at her and glances over to Shigetaka, whose posture is also looser than it had been. “Konoha has never failed the Daimyo’s – my family – before. We shall not lose that faith now.” This is more directed towards them, towards his relationship with them. “But, if you think it prudent that we leave immediately, we will make haste to the border.”

The two exchange glances before Shigetaka shakes his head. “No. They will wait to see how Fire Country and Konoha react before you are in any serious danger. But I would not linger. As you say, we are no longer negotiating with Waterfall from a position of strength and there will be little point in lingering.”


	4. Iburi Fumiki I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 20 Nov 0070 YF  
> Minato's genin team would have raised his son  
> Iburi Fumiki

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Maybe we all need to leave our children with a value legacy, and not a financial one. A value for things with a personal touch - an autographed book, a soul-searching letter. - Lakshmi Pratury

She'd asked at first. Politely, of course, because she was speaking to her social betters.

They'd ignored her.

So she'd filled a petition. Properly filled out, stamped with all the correct seals and signed with the appropriate names.

When they had ignored that, she had cleaned out the guest bedroom and gone to the orphanage. It had been the work of a minute to take the baby - the civilian woman had lost her entire family in the attack and already the rumors about what exactly had happened to the Kyūbi were beginning to swirl around the village.

Jun had been less than pleased... but Yondiame had been their teammate and their friend. For that, he would learn to live with the fact that despite how good they knew that Minato was at seals, this had been a rush job, done over the course of less than an hour.

It took a week for the Hokage to appear at their door, guards in tow.

She had honestly expected him sooner. The fact that it had taken him as long as it had didn't speak well of what was left of the intelligence system. Internal especially. 

"He can't stay here, Iburi-chan." The Hokage sounded tired. Fumiki could relate - she hadn't slept much in the month and a half since the attack either. Although Naruto had been the cause of most of the last week's sleeplessness; it was as if he knew that there was something terribly wrong in his world.

"Why not?" she demanded, raising and moving to the stove, where she had started water boiling when the chakra signatures coming up the walk. "No one else has offered, clearly, if he was still in the orphanage."

There was a pause.

" _Did_ anyone else offer?" She kept her voice carefully under control. It wouldn't do to attempt to murder the Hokage. She was under no illusions about actually managing it, of course.

"Mikoto offered." The Hokage admitted finally. "Two days after the attack, as a matter of fact."

Her cousin. Kushina's teammate. Of course she would have offered. Fumiki closed her eyes and hung her head as she attempted to marshal already fragile emotional shields. There was only one point of commonality she had with her cousin.

"I never activated my eyes." An unnecessary reminder, since she had been allowed to both marry and move out of the district. "And the rumors are wrong."

The rumors that had started swirling within the last few days that the Uchiha had set the Kyūbi on the village, never mind that the clan had lost nearly two dozen of its own evacuating the civilians.

"Nonetheless," Sarutobi sounded even more tired, but now Fumiki couldn't bring herself to feel sorry for him. "He cannot stay here. He is safer being just another Kyūbi orphan."

"What about the Uzushio refugees?" She asked, desperately. She could feel tears forming and blinked them back. It had been... Jun had lost his arm, nearly his life before Tsume had dragged him to the hospital. "Surely they would take Kushina's son?" If he couldn't stay with her, having him with people that knew his mother and her customs would be an accept... a bearable substitute.

"I'm sorry Iburi-chan." The Hokage rose and his guards straightened. Fumiki pushed back.

"No." She gathered herself. "I'll get him." She didn't want them to come any further into her house.

He was sleeping, wrapped in a bright red blanket. It was all she had been able to find that was close to Kushina's hair color. She picked him up, startling him awake and took a moment to soothe him, gathering a stuffed frog (bright orange) and some supplies. She put all of the baby supplies together and shoved them into a carrying case. If he was going back to the orphanage, perhaps a gift of supplies would be enough to make sure at least some of his needs were met for at least a little while.

She returned, carefully passing Naruto over to the Hokage and holding out the bag. "He'll need this." If this was all she could do, she would do it. And if she thought for a moment that she could hide him from the Hokage, she would have fled out the window.

"You are not to have more than the minimal public contact with him." The Hokage held the baby gently. Fumiki didn't care. He looked at her. "Iburi-chan, I am..."

"Leave." She didn't want to hear this. Not from him. "Please."

He hesitated briefly before he and his guards walked out of the door. She waited until they were gone before she took a trembling breath. Another. She wouldn't fall apart. Not yet. She still had things to do.

She packed up the guest room - maybe someday, she would convert it back into a nursery, but now it would be too painful a reminder.

Yondiame’s 's son. Minato's son, in the orphanage, because of... of what? Politics and fear.

She sat down at the kitchen table and began making a list. Maybe she couldn't raise Minato's son the way that he would have wanted. But she could ensure that when Naruto was older, he would have something of his parents to know them by.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you think


	5. Uchiha Mikoto

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 13 Oct 0070  
> She wanted to bring him home with her  
> Uchiha Mikoto

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “On the death of a friend, we should consider that the fates through confidence have devolved on us the task of a double living, that we have henceforth to fulfill the promise of our friend's life also, in our own, to the world.”  
> ― Henry David Thoreau

She took a deep breath. Another. Her fists clenched momentarily, but she relaxed them  immediately. She was still in public and it wouldn't do to have the wife of the (presumptive) Uchiha Clan head lose her composure in front of others.

But she was livid.

Kushina was dead and her husband with her. And their son was alone.

Oh, she supposed that the Toad Sannin might appear and claim him, but she doubted it. The man loved his women and cheap rotgut too much. Not to mention his network of spies and contacts that he continually kept updating and creating were too valuable to risk by saddling him with an infant.

And Yondaime's only surviving student was just past his fourteenth year, making him completely unsuitable to raise an infant, even without the trauma of his only remaining family dying.

And the council refused to let her take custody. She knew that Minato had named Jiraiya as godfather, giving him first claim to raise their son if something happened to either of them. But Kushina had named Mikoto as their second choice.

The council had blocked her, voting five to three (with two abstaining; Hatake, since the only member was fourteen and no one had seen him since the night of the attack and Sarutobi, for reasons of conflict of interest) that she would not be given custody, overriding the last wishes of their Hokage.

The Hyuga and Senju (what was left of them anyway)vote against hadn’t surprised her, but the fact that the Aburame, Akimichi and Yamanaka had surprised and, she was willing to admit to herself at least, hurt her.

She wasn't surprised that Inuzuka had voted for her - Tsume had been their genin teammate too - but the Nara... It was first time that she'd known the trio to split their vote. A futile gesture, in the end. Though one she would remember.

No matter. She turned and headed for the records department. Someone would need to execute Kushina and Minato's wills (she knew that they had them, she had been one of the four witnesses required when they had most recently updated them) for them. And she could no longer trust that the Hokage and shinobi council to carry out their wishes to the best of their ability.

Well, if you want something done right....

She walked into the department and went straight for Toru-san's office.

Naruto would have as much of his mother's (and father's) legacy as she could assure him. She owed her friend that much, at the very least.

No matter what the council might think.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had done one snippet about Minato's friends, but I wanted to do one from the viewpoint of one of Kushina's friends. Let me know what you think.


	6. Uzumaki Mito I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 14 May 0011 YF  
> She wasn't about to let her husband and then her village die  
> Uzumaki Mito

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy are those who dare courageously to defend what they love. Ovid

"Please repeat that." Mito carefully kept her voice even. It wasn't this shinobi's fault that her husband was an imbecile.

That didn't stop the man from taking a small step back. "Lord Hokage has left the village and gone to the end of the valley, in the direction that scouts reported sighting Madara."

Which they had, only a few days ago. Hashirama had been optimistic. Maybe his onetime friend had seen the error of his ways and was returning to the village. His advisors had been less thrilled – not one of them, Mito included, had thought that that behavior consistent with Madara Uchiha’s past actions.

"Alone?" Just to clarify, because he had _seemed_ intelligent when they'd married. He'd managed to found and keep an entire village of shinobi together for over a decade, after all.

"Yes my Lady."

"Where the sensors have assured me that the Kyūbi has settled for what I am sure is an entirely unrelated reason." It wasn't a question.

"Yes my lady." The chūnin seemed resigned at this point and had clearly decided that just saying yes was the best way to get this interrogation over with as quickly as possible.

Mito took a calming breath before she turned and swept out of the room, heading towards her own workspace. If her husband was going to be a fool, she wasn't going to indulge his self-sacrificing heroics. Madara had something to do with the Kyūbi being here; normally the beast was content to roam around the southwest portions of Fire Country.

The other advisors thought that Madara was the biggest threat, that he was the one that should be focused on.

But no matter what anyone thought, the Kyūbi was the biggest threat. And while her husband could contain it with his wood release, he couldn't do it while distracted by the threat to the village and being attacked by Madara.

So _she_ would deal with the Kyūbi.

The scroll was tucked into the very back of her library, behind a genjutsu and several seals of varying strengths and lethalities. She had been entrusted with its care when she reached her age of majority and it would remain in her custody until she found a successor that she considered worthy of becoming its guardian.

She flicked it open and let it roll until it stopped on the four trigram containment seal, a seal used to trap a person’s chakra or soul into an object. She examined it, mentally modifying it until she thought that it could be used to house a force of nature.

But what could she use to seal the Kyūbi? She wasn't sure about that - to attempt to tame the wrath of nature was nothing more than to attempt to best the gods and nothing good ever came of that. She stilled, the thought turning over in her head and she examined it from every angle. An inanimate object wouldn't do - the sheer amount of chakra meant that the container would eventually degrade and release the Kyūbi. A living thing would work, but nothing but another sentient would be able to resist the corrupting influence that the trapped soul - as much as the Kyūbi could have a soul - would be.

So... who to seal the Kyūbi in? Someone that could be counted on to be loyal to the village, who wouldn't flee and had enough of a spine to resist the influence of rage personified. And whose chakra was compatible.

She studied the seal again – one four trigram seal would trap the Kyūbi, but wouldn’t allow her to access it’s chakra or to for some of it to leak off, trapping it and allowing something of a feedback loop until it could break free on its own. But if she used two of the four trigram seals, using opposite cardinal directions and having them only nearly touch instead of overlap, she should be able to draw on the Kyūbi’s chakra without issue, thus preventing the buildup while requiring only minimal touchups.

A deep breath as she gathered her supplies together. She would be the container in which the Kyūbi would be sealed. She trusted no one else to bear the burden. Had she the time to think on it, to examine all the candidates, she could possibly find another. But there wasn't time. Not if she wanted to avoid becoming a widow because her ridiculously noble husband refused to risk the lives of his people or allow another to interfere in a fight with what he considered one of his oldest friends.

She smoothed her face out, until it was a blank mask, and strode from the room, nearly running over Tōka and Nara Shiku. "I need a prisoner." She ignored them entirely, directing the command at one of the chūnin guards in the corridor. "I don't care who, so long as they're scheduled for execution. Bind them and take them to the stables." Tōka opened her mouth, but Mito held up a hand, not allowing her to speak. "And inform someone that I expect one of my horses ready within the next twenty minutes."

Any sealing over the most basic required some sacrifice, from blood all the way up to a person’s very soul. And Mito was selfish enough that she didn’t want to leave this world yet, not for a temporary banishment of a Biju. So, she would simply use someone else.

"Lady." The chūnin bowed and vanished, leaving her to deal with her husband's other advisors. At least Tamiyo wasn't available, though Mito suspected she would have less trouble with her husband's stepmother.

"Lady Mito, what are you planning on doing?" Shiku sounded wary. Good.

Tōka was less diplomatic. "What good do you think you could possibly do, other than distract Hashirama?"

Mito attempted to not feel insulted. She was no field shinobi, true, and she couldn't fight like her husband's cousin. But she was a seal master, one of the four members of the Uzumaki clan entrusted with guarding one of the four scared scrolls. After nearly six years in the village, she would have thought that Tōka, of all people, would have noticed.

"More good than you." Her tone was curt. She didn't care. "Begin to evacuate the civilians into what shelters we have available and tell the shinobi to prepare themselves to meet Uchiha and the beast on the north wall."

"And what will you do?" Tōka stood her ground, but Shiku began to leave, no doubt to organize the shinobi and civilians.

"My duty." Mito's voice was cold. "As I expect you to do yours." She swept past them both, heading in the direction of the stables. She would save her village from the disaster about to befall them. And then she would save her husband.


	7. Nohara Rin I

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 15 Dec 0064 YF  
> Team assignments go awry  
> Nohara Rin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> One of the most beautiful qualities of true friendship is to understand and to be understood. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca

".... And finally, Team Thirteen: Kameyama Terao, Tsukawaki Kikunojo, and Yūhi Kurenai."

Rin couldn't move, horror rapidly building. Her name hadn't been called. _Why hadn't her name been called?_ She was one of the top students in class, definitely the top kunoichi, she had the best chakra control and her rudimentary healing abilities meant that she held the top spot in ninjutsu as well.

"Hey!" She wrenched her head around as Obito's yell cut through the excited chatter around her. "My name wasn't called!"

She took a breath when she realized Obito was right. They were the last two left. Maybe they were waiting for a third teammate?

Funeno-sensei frowned at him. "There aren't enough students to have full teams - you'll be dealt with differently."

 _Differently?_ Rin swallowed hard. She’d never heard of there being an uneven number of students before and she had no idea what to expect. Would they be placed automatically in apprenticeships? Well, she would get an apprenticeship with one of her relatives, but she didn’t know if Obito would be placed in the Police Corps.

Kazuki snickered and nudged what was probably a cousin. "Too bad Obito-kun. Guess you'll have to wait until the next time around. Maybe you won't screw that up _too_ badly."

Funeno-sensei frowned but didn't say anything and Rin scowled. Funeno-sensei had always favored the Uchiha students over the others, but usually he didn't let him be such jerks. And usually one of their other cousins would rein them in with a lecture about clan solidarity. But with emotions running high with passing, she guessed that they didn’t want to bother.

"Uchiha-kun, Nohara-chan, you two are to report to Soma-san tomorrow morning and she'll explain the situation to you."

She was almost numb. What.... what had she done? Not that she didn't love Obito, she did, he had been one of the first of the students to befriend her - too civilian for the clan kids and not civilian enough for the others - but she should have been on one of the teams. She knew she should have been.

"Rin?" Obito stood in front of her, shifting his weight and looking worried. "Are you alright?"

She forced a smile. Whatever was going on, it wasn't Obito's fault and it wouldn't be fair to take out her worry on him. He looked just as upset - he'd passed (if only barely in some of the categories) and he should have been on a team too. Probably her team, since the Academy started at both ends and took the lowest ranked student, the highest ranked student, and the student that was in the exact middle of them and put them on a team together, accounting for the two boys, one girl formula that Konoha preferred.

The system wasn't prefect, since clan preferences and team formations could throw that off (the two Uchihas and the Aki-Nara-Yama team had definitely messed up the list) but that was how it typically happened.

"I'm fine. I'm sure whatever it is will be interesting." She slung her bag over her shoulder and bit her lip. Team assignment day was a half day officially, so students that weren't being assigned to jōnin-sensei's were kicked out at noon so that there wasn't a lot of interference between the jōnins and their new students. "Do you want to come over for lunch? Grandmother said she would make something as a treat since we graduated."

And she knew her grandmother would have made Obito's favorite dishes; since her first day at the Academy, Obito had been a constant fixture in her life and she knew that she was in his, since his family... well, for a clan that seemed to preach familial loyalty, they didn't really seem to care about Obito.

She waited while Obito hesitated for a moment before he nodded - good. He needed some sort of family and if it was hers instead of the people it was supposed to be... well, the Uchihas would deal. It wasn't like they were doing anything wrong and besides, the Nohara clan was famed for its general neutrality and lack of bloodline theft attempts. It was one of the reasons they were among the most trusted medics in the village - their iryō jutsus were enough for them and the other clans trusted that.

The day was actually cold and Rin pulled her coat tighter around herself; graduating in the middle of winter kind of sucked for everyone, since they had to learn all of the basics in the cold, including water walking; there was always an uptick in treating hypothermia from the beginning of December through the middle of February, the only truly cold months that Fire Country had.

The streets were quiet - with so many shinobi out on the front lines, the civilians didn't go out as much either. No one liked it when the protectors of the village were gone, even the protectors that were left; the Uchiha had implemented a curfew as soon as most of the jōnin had left. And the civilian and shinobi councils had both backed the decision, which was nearly unheard of.

Obito moved closer and Rin gave him a grateful smile - the Uchiha was always a few degrees hotter than normal, something common to most shinobi with fire affinities.

"What do you think that Soma-sensei is going to tell us?" Obito was practically bouncing now, the excitement evident in his voice. "Maybe she's gonna tell us that we're going to ANBU! Or that we're getting assigned to the Sannin! That'd be cool - Orochimaru-san seems really smart!"

Rin snorted. "They aren't going to assign us to ANBU. And Orochimaru-san never takes a genin team. If we were going to be on a team with a Sannin," which they weren't, because there was no way that a Sannin would be given a kunoichi from a minor clan and the boy considered the Uchiha screw up, "we should be on a team with Senju-hime."

A team with the most famous medic in all of the elemental nations? Rin would have loved that, learning from the best, if Senju-hime hadn't left the village nearly five years before. And everyone knew that Senju-san hadn't taken a team since his old one had graduated.

Obito grinned and elbowed her as they came to the beginning of her family's section of the village. "Maybe we'll get assigned to the Yellow Flash. Wouldn't that be awesome!"

Rin elbowed him back, an answering grin appearing. "That's not going to happen." She gave him a quick shove and took off running. "First one back gets first pick on Grandmother's tarts!"

Obito yelped and took off after her. Rin's smile widened. Whatever happened tomorrow, as long as she was with Obito, it would be just fine.


	8. Utatane Koharu

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 03 Jun 0054 YF  
> The Hokage is dead. Long live the Hokage  
> Utatane Koharu

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> “I pass the test”, she said. “I will diminish, and go into the West and remain Galadriel.” - Galadriel, The Fellowship of the Ring

It was hot out, the remnant of sensei's battle, but all Koharu felt is numb. He told them to run, to leave him and he'd buy them time. She'd argued - they'd all argued, but sensei hadn't let them; not for long, before he'd pulled rank.

Before he'd made Hiruzen - bleeding hearted, soft Hiruzen - Hokage.

She glanced over at her teammate, curled over the robes that sensei had shoved into his arms before he'd vanished into the trees for the last time, and felt nothing but anxiety. They were in the middle of a war, they were very barely winning a war, and now with Hiruzen in charge....

"Now what?" Homura stepped up behind her, the question a low murmur in her ear, and she knew. Knew what he was asking. The only people that knew about Hiruzen being Hokage were the six of them... and all it would take would be saying that they hadn't heard who sensei had picked as his successor. One denial and choosing a new Hokage would drag out, leaving one of sensei's cousins to fill in the role or, more likely, Shimura's mother.

Koharu considered it for a long moment, letting her gaze sweep over the clearing, reading body language to see who might go in which direction, if she and Homura pushed it.

Danzo would jump at the chance, she knew, given how he had always been jealous of sensei's obvious love for Hiruzen and how easily Hiruzen could walk into a room and take command.

The Uchiha - she felt a flash of pain at the reminder that Kagami was gone and doubted that it would ever fade completely - would protest, unless it was presented properly, in terms of what his clan would gain. Her lip curled back at the thought. All Uchiha were like that, she thought, greedy, thinking only of what their clan could gain.

(She tried not to think of another Uchiha, open and laughing as he grabbed her and showed her the earrings he'd picked as a courting gift. Kagami had been dead for nearly twenty years, dwelling on him wouldn't change anything)

Torifu however.... he would be a problem. He was loyal and he was honest... and his philosophy was closer to Hiruzen's than their own. She pursed her lips as she thought, Homura waiting patiently for her decision - she was third and with Hiruzen currently useless and sensei... well, she was in charge.

She was opening her mouth, ready to tell Homura that Torifu would have to die, that they would need to take care of it so that it wouldn't look suspicious, when Hiruzen raised his head enough to look at her.

And she stopped. Because Hiruzen's eyes were full of grief, were already wet with tears, but.... he trusted her, even now. Even knowing how she felt about his views, about how she thought they should have been running the war from the start, even knowing (because he had to know. He had to realize that his only true ally was Torifu. How could he not?) all of that, he trusted her.

Her jaw clicked shut and she took a breath, and another, before answering. "We go home. We present the Hokage's robes. And we stand beside him, the same as we've always done."

Homura hummed thoughtfully. "At least those robes should billow enough that we'll be able to hold him back."

She choked back a laugh that sounded more like a sob and took a step forward as every eye in the clearing focused on her.

"We need to move." She swept her gaze over them, lingering on Danzo. Homura wouldn't have suggested treason on his own. Wouldn't have suggested disgracing their sensei without a push. That she considered it, had been ready to follow through, she would deal with later. For now, they needed to return to the village and report their diplomatic mission a failure. "Hoka - Sensei bought us time, but come dawn every Kumo shinobi in the area will be converging on the battle sight."

"Right." The Uchiha stood, giving her a slight nod. "Is there any way to retrieve Hokage-sama's body?"

She hesitated then. They needed to return and report - Konoha had been counting on this diplomatic mission. Had sent their best and brightest to impress the Daimyo of Lightning, which it hadn't - but the thought of leaving sensei's body for the vultures of Kumo to find and take apart to try and see how he had been so strong.... no. Every fiber of her being rebelled at the idea.

She straightened her shoulders, tightened her hitai-ate, and meet Hiruzen's eyes. She'd faltered, just now, and faltered badly, but not again.

Never again.


	9. Senju Tobirama II

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> 01 Dec 0032 YF  
> He holds his son in his arms  
> Senju Tobirama

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The babe in arms is a channel through which the energies we call fate, love, and reason visibly stream. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
> 
> This was actually based on [this post](http://blackkatmagic.tumblr.com/post/147342247500/random-plot-bunny-free-to-good-home-so-that-i) on [blackkat's](http://archiveofourown.org/users/blackkat/pseuds/blackkat) tumblr

He stared at the small bundle of cloth topped with fluffy white hair - thus far, the only one of his children to have inherited that particular genetic trait. The other two had the same chestnut brown as their mother, though Tadashi had inherited his eyes. His wife had dropped the baby off earlier, since she was going to the civilian school and hadn't wanted to expose the baby to whatever germs the children might be hiding.

Jiraiya wrinkled his nose as he yawned, cloth shifting as he tried to stretch his arms. When that failed, blue eyes already darkening to brown opened and stared at him. He stared back, ignoring his paperwork for the time being; it would still be there when he was finished and he sometimes cursed his brother for handing him the hat, no matter how much he understood why.

"We'll start you off with seals." He informed his son, who made a happy burbling noise and wiggled with more enthusiasm than grace (as much as possible when swaddled, of course). "Your brother and sister are both completely hopeless, but perhaps you will enjoy it more."

Tadashi took after his uncle, much to Tobirama's eternal exasperation; he loved his brother, but the man was completely childish when he could get away with it and Tadashi emulated that with enthusiasm. Though since the boy was a genius with ninjutsu and was attempting to emulate his uncle's wood release as well as some of Hashirama's more... interesting jutsu, Tobirama kept his peace and simply resigned himself to many, many enthusiastic jutsu descriptions.

Kiyo might, he supposed, develop an interest in seals as she grew (she was barely three and a half, after all. Megu laughed at him when he said that the fact she had yet to show any ability to mold chakra worried him. It did - he was able to mold chakra with ease by the time he was her age) but nothing he saw indicated that she would. She spent far too much time working on hitting things as hard as possible, encouraged by both Tōka and Itama, who didn't have to live with the results of her practicing on her older brother.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please, let me know what you think!


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